The present invention relates to the art of cooking and more particularly to a vertical immersion cooking arrangements as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,071.
In many prior art arrangements, for example deep frying devices, shallow horizontal pans are utilized which require greater quantities of shortening than in vertical cooking and which, because of the additional shortening and exposed area to volume relationship, require significantly more energy for cooking a selected item than in arrangements where the surface to volume relationship is lower.
In prior art arrangements where a form of vertical cooking is utilized, the product is usually stacked in the cooker with adjacent pieces in contact so that in many cases the pieces stick together. The device shown in U.S. Pat. No 3,985,071 provides means to cook food in vertical spaced relation to prevent mutual contact and sticking by disposing the food to be cooked on superposed spaced shelves.
The present invention further relates to the art of cooking filled pastry shells which encapsulate the filling. In prior art practice, for example in making fried pies or other fully filled pastry encapsulations, the item is simply immersed in a heated oil at a selected temperature to be cooked. However, it has been found that in cooking items such as sausage, eggs, pizza, etc., in pastry shells where the shell is not filled, or where the filling shrinks, or where gas is evolved from the filling so that gas or air pockets are located in the shell, heat transfer to the filling is generally poor. Accordingly, it has been found that immersion cooking of such items can be unsatisfactory and that in many instances it is difficult to properly cook the filling without overcooking the shell. It has been found that the problem is particularly acute where the shell rises during cooking, as for example, where the filling evolves vapor, for example steam, during cooking so that the vapor tends to urge the shell away from the filling, leaving insulating gas pockets between the shell and the filling.
Further, prior art methods for cooking filled pastry items have resulted in products which have little strength so are difficult to eat by hand.